architect was over. However, as India was my real dream, I took up Hindi and Urdu at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. I majored in India and Pakistan," adds the dancer and yoga instructor who is settled in Bhubaneswar.

Masako finally landed in India and visited her beloved Taj Mahal. Back in Japan, she also started learning Bharatanatyam from a Japanese teacher to pursue something Indian. But hardly had she imagined then that it is Odissi that would snatch her away from her home for another home in far off India.

"At the University, I once watched a video of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra performing in Tokyo. And I told myself instantly - this is what I want to do in my life," she recollects.

"At the Indian Embassy in Japan, I was told about Protima Bedi's Nrityagram to learn Odissi. So I wrote her and she asked me to meet her. "You have to be a professional Odissi dancer, else go back home," Bedi told Masako on their first encounter in 1996 at Nrityagram near Bangalore to which the aspiring dancer modestly replied, "I will try to be one". And Bedi retorted, "Do you want to be an Odissi dancer, or will you be an Odissi dancer?"

"I got the message and confessed that I will."

Although she had learnt modern dance and hip-hop in Tokyo, at Nrityagram she was trained in Odissi while experiencing teaching of yoga, Flamenco, contemporary dance, African dance, Chhau and Kalaripayattu in workshops. "All these exposed me to the real world of dance."

Hard work paid off. Masako bagged a scholarship from Nrityagram and was accepted as a residential student two years later. Upon completion of her basic training in Odissi, she left for higher training under versatile gurus like Kelucharan Mohapatra, Ramani Ranjan Jena, Bichitrananda Swain and Naba Kishore Mishra in Bhubaneswar.

Despite mastering the dance style, both in its traditional and experimental aspects, Masako had a trying time in getting a platform to perform in Orissa despite having performed for a stalwart like Louis Banks in Mumbai.

"Unfortunately people had the misconception that we foreigners cannot dance like the natives. So it was difficult to get programmes here that often compelled me to think of returning to my country. But thanks to the foreign dancers' festival organised by the Bhubaneswar Music Circle in 2004 that our talent were noticed and acknowledged finally," said the globe-trotter dancer.

Masako is often criticised by the purists for her experiments. "Yes, I do a lot of fusion and experimentation. My study and understanding of the "tantra" and "yoga" prompted me to add a new dimension to Odissi repertoire. If people don't want to call it Odissi, I am not worried. I want to perform whatever the audience wants. I don't want them to get bored. After all, performing arts is a tradition in continuity. It is not wise to confine it to a particular framework," she argues.

"Once I was warned by an Odissi dance exponent that certain movements are prohibited in the "Natyashastra" - lifting the feet above the waist for instance - little knowing the fact that in Bharatanatyam legs are lifted not just above the waist but even higher," pointed out Masako whose house in Bhubaneswar has been a favourite place of stay for several aspiring dancers coming from abroad to learn Odissi in Orissa.

What about her marriage and future? "Don't you know that I am in love? Will think of marriage later. I am in love with the Taj Mahal, Odissi and India at large," she jokes and confides "what really matters to me is dance and not marriage".